Why Travis McGee?

I love it when I encounter real treasures in trash culture. A country
station playing Conway Twitty's wrenchingly wistful "Crazy in Love".
A motel restaurant in Crescent City, decked-out in plastic and gilt decor,
serving the tastiest prime rib in memory. Tuning in to The Simpsons
and finding the best social satire on the tube coming out of those cartoon
mouths.

About a year ago a friend gave me a truly tacky-looking 1960's paperback
and suggested I not judge the book by its cover. Once I got into it, I discovered
amazingly excellent writing, with little gems of wisdom, humor, and compassion
casually slipped-in among the preposterous and inevitable sex, murder and
mayhem. Classy trash! A beach book for intelligent readers! John D. MacDonald's
insights on issues like environmental degradation, overpopulation, irresponsible
development, and mindless materialism are as urgently relevant today as
they were thirty years ago.

The basic framework of a Travis McGee story is this: Travis, a brawny
combat veteran, is a self-described beachbum and salvage expert. By "salvage"
he means he will retrieve something of value that was taken from its rightful
owner, something the victim can't get back by himself, and keep half as
his fee. He lives in a houseboat at Fort Lauderdale, drives an old Rolls-Royce
which someone had converted into a pickup truck, and works only when he
feels like it or when he can't refuse doing a favor.

His best friend and next-berth neighbor is Meyer, a renowned economist
and goldmine of knowledge and insight. With these two characters, the author
manages to find a way to say whatever he wants about humankind and the state
of the world. (Click on "Selected Quotes" for some examples.)

For me the best thing about Travis is that he embodies the ideal of
independence and is the very opposite of a Company Man. If MacDonald were
around to write the series today, he would likely expand on that theme,
comment on current and passing management fads, and make sad and ironic
observations on the ways organizations are dealing with their people.